Weekly Seeds | January 27, 2025 | Wait? 2024 Was All About Healing?
Published by Noa Elan on
About politics, power, and your mental health
On Jan 26, 2025, where do you fall on the spectrum between engaging with the news and maintaining your mental health? In an attempt to not add anxiety to your system I will limit my writing on the political landscape to one item per newsletter. Now let’s see if I can do that…
19 states have already passed laws requiring adult websites to verify that users are over 18 years old. I could write several paragraphs on why these laws are not likely to stop underage consumption of p*rn, but I assume we've all witnessed the limited power of laws on drug use, underage consumption of alcohol, or vaping.
Let’s talk about age verification. When you “verify your identity’ on a platform, you also leave a digital fingerprint on these platform, "verifying that you’ve visited them". For some adults, being caught on p*rn sites can get them into real trouble (see Ashley Madison and the Catholic Church x Grindr,) which makes age verification extremely risky for them.
The legal verification requirements led Pornhub to choose to go dark across the U.S South (a third of the US!), which sparks my curiosity about what platforms will become mainstream in The South (whether above the surface or underground), and wheather these laws will kill small productions who are more ethical, and consent-first platforms.
Feeling Icky after all this? Clean your palate with these yummy sex-positive p*rn resources:
Get your tickets to HUMP! Film Festival as they celebrate their 20-year anniversary. PS- if you’re in SF, SEA, or PDX- Plura’s co-hosting official 20-year anniversary parties in your city.
Nope, apparently there is more down to go. Tomorrow is the last day you can hang out at a Starbucks, or pee, without buying a drink. Earlier this month Starbucks reversed its open-door policy, known as the “Third Place Policy”, which welcomed customers "to use Starbucks spaces, including our restrooms, cafes and patios, regardless of whether they make a purchase”. I am sad for this loss, as my local Starbucks truly feels like a third place, a place I take my kids to do art on Saturday afternoon, where we chitchat with people who are heading into the market, taking their lunch break, or waiting for their high-school friends to arrive.
If 2024 was all about healing, then 2025 is the year to show up ready
I pulled this quote from Tinder’s Year in Swipe annual report. TBH I’m not sure exactly what Tinder means (especially because I feel like 2024 was more about trauma than healing!) but regardless, I’m into showing up ready. It’s hard to summarize the report, where every sentence feels like an astrological reading, equally insightful and empty of meaningful guidance, but I invite you to read the report and show up ready for 2025, knowing all dating lingo, including Nano-ships, Kiss-met, and Loud Looking.
Hinge is also helping users “show up ready” for 2025 with some AI-led “Prompt Feedback” and helping people write more nuanced bios and less generic photo captions. Have you tried it? I’d love to hear if it’s helpful.
Note: This newsletter represents my (Noa's) personal opinions and thoughts. I understand I may have unexamined views and I appreciate when people point them out so that I am made aware and can start thinking about them. When I make mistakes I am committed to learning about my impact on others and repairing.
![quote: The essential element of consolation is hope: the belief that we can recover from loss, defeat, and disappointment, and that the time that remains to us, however short, offers us possibilities to start again, failing perhaps, but as Beckett said, failing better. It is this hope that allows us, even in the face of tragedy, to remain unbowed. […] There are some losses that are irremediable; some experiences from which we cannot fully recover; some scars that heal but do not fade. The challenge of consolation in our times is to endure tragedy, even when we cannot find a meaning for it, and to continue living in hope.](https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NawCgfJxBew4qc3kPlDDPsXqvW0SQXSF2_DIAJd77yZJ4khaUkFp2eJfUmOjMmuiQzKUEBXU_Fr8LmyR8Lpur-DxaS04cIgnSguJVYrmuesCHF2m8aEWungkInMY9r5fHdedR_nb4zoHvVCjbERviWu=s0-d-e1-ft#https://storage.mlcdn.com/account_image/377824/mhQsJcPGrQYn236Ej3qNsD3ZOAivP9r9TuAzW7Z6.png)
